tbe Stu&s of IRatural Scenery 5 



scenery exists ; even in the high Alps the mountaineer builds 

 his dingy cottage and surrounds it with degrading associa- 

 tions ; there are hardly any primitive forests left, and if 

 there were they would not be wholly " natural." In the 

 Northern hemisphere, at least, everything has changed, cen- 

 tury after century. Forests have been destroyed and 

 regenerated ; culture has reclaimed vast tracts of land only 

 to be conquered by nature in its turn. But the world is 

 not the less beautiful because of this struggle. Even man 

 in his most destructive work has done much to create 

 diversity in the scenery, when tempted by gain or forced 

 by circumstances to destroy the existing vegetation and 

 to open endless forests for fields of grain or patches of 

 garden land. The result of this destruction is by no means 

 an unmixed evil, as many would have us to believe. The 

 beautiful reaches of open land ; wide prospects of grassy 

 fields, dotted over with scattered trees and bordered by 

 copse and wood, forming the smiling landscapes of many 

 northern countries, are essentially the result of man's inter- 

 ference. His axe opened the murky woods and let air into 

 the lungs of nature ; some of the most beautiful plants that 

 at best led a precarious existence in the forest darkness 

 spread and developed in the opened woodlands. The 

 weaker and more tender vegetation got a chance, not only 

 to exist, but to increase rapidly, painting hill and dale in 

 glorious colors. Nature quickly rehabilitated herself after 

 such destruction when left alone ; a new beauty sprang up 

 over the perishing world of giant trees, youthful and vigor- 

 ous forms took the place of the old gloomy hosts of the 

 forest. 



